Will the Real Prince Charming Please Stand Up (9 page)

Ally and I were on the lawn outside the cafeteria listening to “Don’t Tell Mama” from
Cabaret
on my phone when Dante found us. We were both sitting cross-legged on a green and gold blanket that Brady kept in his car, our skirts carefully pulled over our knees so that we didn’t accidentally flash anyone.

“I like this one for you,” Ally said. “It’s fun, but it’s sort of risqué, you know?”

“Maybe.”

“It’s totally in your range, and I can help you come up with some fun choreography to go with it. You should do it!”

“I’ll think about it,” I said. “But we’re not looking for a song for me. We need to find something for you.”

“What are you listening to?” Dante asked from behind us.

I jumped. “Dante! You practically scared me to death!”

“Sorry I’m late.” He sat beside me and put his head on my shoulder. “I got your text, but I wasn’t sure which lawn you meant.” He smiled. “Hi, Ally.”

She offered a tight-lipped smile before turning her attention back to my phone.

“No worries. We’re trying to find songs we can use for our auditions. It’s too loud to listen to soundtracks in the cafeteria.”

He glanced up at her, surprised. “You’re in Drama, too?”

“Not really.” Ally lifted a shoulder and barely looked up from my phone. “I only audition if I like the show.”

He nodded. “So what have you found? What are you going to sing?” he asked me.

“I don’t know yet.”

“Ooh,” Ally said. “Would it be wrong to do that T and A song from
A Chorus Line
?”

“That was last year’s show. And Brittany Meyers went on to Julliard, remember?” I said, reminding her that the senior who’d portrayed Val delivered an unforgettable performance the prior year.

She frowned. “Oh, yeah.”

“Besides, that song doesn’t even begin to show off your range. Listen to something Mimi sings in
Rent
,” I suggested. “You can totally belt that out.”

“But everyone does
Rent
,” she whined. “It’s completely unoriginal! I might as well pick something from
Wicked
.”

Dante cocked his head. “You guys really take this seriously, don’t you?”

“Riley expects us to,” I replied a bit more tersely than I intended. “Most of the people who audition have been to theater camps and have vocal coaches and all that. So, yeah, it’s a really big deal.”

“Oh wow, Bianca. You have, like a ton of soundtracks on here!” Ally exclaimed, staring at my phone. “
Showboat
? Seriously?”

“I don’t have the whole thing. Just a couple of songs.”

“I love this one!”

The opening strains of “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” started playing, and I closed my eyes as I started singing along with Ava Gardner.

“She’s fabulous, isn’t she?” Ally asked Dante.

I stopped singing and looked at him, nervous to hear his response. His expression was unreadable, but he replied, “She’s not bad.” I flushed, and he said, “That’s a nice song.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I know lots of songs. Ally suggested I do something from
Cabaret
.”

He shook his head. “No, sing that one. I like how you sing it. It’s like you’re singing about me.”

I froze and glanced over at Ally. Her eyes were large with astonishment as she stared at me.

“We’ll see,” I said, unable to meet his eyes.

****

“No, no, no. I think you have it wrong,” Ally said. “Back up and watch me. It’s one, two, three and four and five and six, seven, eight,” she counted while she danced.

The afternoon after
Chicago
was announced, Mr. Horowitz, the choreographer who worked on all of Mrs. Riley’s musicals, had demonstrated the steps we were all required to perform for the dance portion of the next week’s auditions. Ally had secretly videoed him on her phone so we could study his moves and perfect them.

“Okay, I think I see what you’re doing there,” I said, watching her motions. “Do that again, but slower this time, and I’ll try to follow you.”

We were rehearsing in my garage, the only totally open space at my house. And, since Brady was at football practice and my dad was still at work, my mom had left us alone to practice the choreography uninterrupted. We could have asked Finn’s mom to drop us off at Ally’s house to use the dance studio her parents put in when we were in elementary school, but Dante said he would come over after he’d passed his driving test. I wanted to be home to see him.

Ally was an amazing dancer. She had taken dance classes all through grade school, so stuff like this was second nature to her. Her movements were graceful and fluid, as if whatever choreography she was following was the most natural thing in the world.

Me? Not so much.

It took another twenty minutes before I finally got the sequence correct, though it still wasn’t at the right tempo. By then, I was hot and sweaty but really pleased with my progress. So when Dante pulled into my driveway in his black roadster, I was an elated but disheveled mess.

“What happened to you?” He lowered the sunglasses I’d presented to him for his birthday and wrinkled his nose in disgust. Those shades had cost me more than a month’s allowance, but I’d known how much he wanted them, so the look of surprise on his face earlier that day was worth it.

“I’ve been practicing for next week’s try-outs,” I explained, tucking behind my ear a lock of hair that had come loose from the tight bun atop my head. I straightened my sticky sweatshirt and stepped forward to embrace him, but he took a step back. “It took me, like, forever, but I think I’ve finally got it,” I said, trying not to let disappointment creep into my voice. “Do you want to see?”

“Not really. But I wanted to show you my new license.” He proudly displayed an unfolded sheet of paper.

“You passed!” I jumped up and down excitedly, clapping my hands. “Yay!” I squealed.

“This also means you don’t need to get rides from your brother or his friend anymore,” he announced with a smug grin.

“Well, I’ll still need to make sure my mom’s okay with you taking me home from school first,” I said.

He was incredulous. “You need permission? Why?”

I was staring at him open-mouthed when Ally joined us.

“Hey, Dante. Nice ride,” she said politely as she sipped from her water bottle. “It’s pretty.”

“Thanks,” he replied gruffly. He fixed his eyes on me. “I was going to take my girlfriend for a ride, but she probably has to go and ask her mommy first.”

“Don’t be a jerk,” I said.

Something flashed in his eyes, and he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets as he scowled. I took a nervous step back while Ally checked out his car.

“Oh, you got an automatic, though,” she said, peering into the interior. She sounded disappointed. “A stick is so much better.”

“You’re such a snob,” I said, laughing.

“My brother Charlie says it’s pointless to get an automatic, especially on a sports car. He says you’re supposed to drive the car, you don’t let the car drive you. Besides, a manual transmission has better mileage, and you get much better handling.”

“It handles just fine,” Dante snapped, sounding irritated.

Ally seemed to ignore him. “I so want a roadster, though,” she said, tracing the top of the door with her finger.

“So tell your parents.”

“Yeah, like that would do any good. My dad doesn’t like two-seaters. Plus, he doesn’t trust convertibles. He says they’re too hard to maintain.”

“You’re the one driving it. You should get what you want.”

Ally straightened and smiled sweetly at him. “If my dad is buying me a car, I’ll happily take whatever he gives me,” she replied, more than a hint of annoyance lacing her saccharine tone. She turned and headed back to the garage. “Come on, Bianca,” she said over her shoulder. “We’ve still got the second half of the choreography to master, and you’re still tragically slow on the first part.”

“I’ll call you later,” I mumbled.

“Yeah,” he huffed as he climbed into his car. “Whenever you aren’t too busy for me.”

I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. “I’ve told you how important this is to me.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He started the car and looked up at me. “It seems like everything is important to you except me.”

“Come on, Dante. Don’t be like that.”

He revved his engine and backed out, and all I could do was watch him drive away.

“Bianca!” Ally called. “Come on!”

I turned and trudged back into the garage. “I wish we were doing this at your house instead of here,” I said.

“What?” She was cuing up the music and didn’t hear me.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Does he always act like that?” she asked, not looking at me. “Like, is he always a major buzzkill?”

“Not usually,” I replied, but I had a feeling my words lacked conviction. It was mostly true, but he’d been acting uptight about something ever since I’d told him about Drama auditions. Explaining it to one of my best friends, though, felt like I was trying to convince myself.

Ally eyed me sympathetically before she enveloped me in a supportive hug.

“Talia’s not really thrilled about you taking him back,” she said, carefully measuring each word.

“I know,” I said with a sniff. “That’s why she’s been avoiding me.”

“She doesn’t deal well. What did she say her therapist called her? Passive-aggressive?”

“Something like that.” I sniffed again and leaned against the wall.

“I promised her I wouldn’t say anything, but we’re all kind of worried, you know?”

“Worried?”

She nodded. “I think she was right. Dante doesn’t seem like a very nice guy.” Ally sighed. “I don’t think he’s the right guy for you.”

“But you were the one who wanted me and Dante to get together in the first place,” I said with a frown.

“I know,” she said, “but that was before, you know.” She shrugged. “I’m not ashamed to admit it when I think I’m wrong about something.”

My frown deepened as I considered her words. “He’s really not that bad,” I said at last.

“I guess.” Ally studied me for a moment before she said, “But you can do so much better than ‘not that bad.’”

The following week, I was pacing outside the Performing Arts Center after school. Ally and I had done well enough at Monday’s dance auditions to move on to Wednesday’s voice auditions, and I was anxiously awaiting my turn to sing. Most of the other hopefuls were inside observing the competition, but I couldn’t sit still watching everyone else.

Brady and Tim had heard me practicing all weekend. I still hadn’t decided what my audition piece would be, so Ally had helped me come up with simple choreography for both “Don’t Tell Mama” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” and I’d practiced them both until I was certain I could perform either equally well. But I still hadn’t chosen my song when I arrived for my audition.

“I thought I told you to sing that song about me,” Dante had said as he walked with me to the auditorium after school.

“It’s not about you,” I’d told him.

He’d lifted my chin with his index finger and looked meaningfully into my eyes. “But you can think about me when you sing it.” It hadn’t been a suggestion as much as it had sounded like a demand, and I wasn’t sure why, but it kind of freaked me out.

“Are you going to stay with me and watch?” I’d asked.

“I told you, this really isn’t my thing,” he’d said with a shake of his head. “But I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

Dante had long left school by the time my nerves had really come undone. I clutched my locket as I tried to keep calm, and I was certain I was wearing thin the soles of my sneakers as I walked back and forth on the concrete outside the Performing Arts Center.

“Don’t you need to be inside?” Brady called as he and Tim approached.

I stopped and waved to them. “There are still, like, five people ahead of me,” I said. “Plus Ally’s in there, and I’m already nervous enough for her.” I shuddered. She had been practicing “So Long, Dearie” from
Hello, Dolly
nonstop for three days, and though she’d sounded amazing, listening to her stress out about her performance only made me more anxious. “I can’t sit in there right now,” I insisted. “I’ll go crazy.”

“You’ll be fine,” my brother said, sounding completely unconcerned. Tim was much more sympathetic.

“Hey,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. “You’ve got this,” he said into my hair. “You sounded great all weekend singing for us. I mean, you were so worried about the dancing part, and you totally nailed that, right?” I nodded into his chest. “That was the hard part,” he said. “You’re going to blow them away. You’ll see.”

I took a deep breath and let myself sink into his arms. He smelled like he had at Halloween, only maybe better, if that was even possible. It was comforting and exciting all at once, and I wanted him to hold me like that forever, just so I could bathe in his scent.

Brady cleared his throat, and Tim released me. I kept my eyes trained on my feet so I wouldn’t be tempted to scowl at my brother.

“So what are you singing?” Brady asked. “Have you finally decided?”

“Um, Dante told me to sign up with the
Showboat
song,” I replied, not looking at Tim.

“Then you should do the other one,” Brady said gruffly.

“Don’t be such a jerk,” I scolded him. Then to Tim, I asked, “Will you stay and watch me? I mean, if you have time?” My brother shook his head, so I pleaded, “Please? It would totally help if I knew there was a friendly face out there. I won’t be so nervous that way.”

Tim looked at Brady before nodding, and my brother threw his hands up in the air.

“Sure,” he replied with a grin, and I felt my insides melt.

Maybe I wasn’t totally over that fourth-grade crush, after all.

Ally stormed out of the auditorium doors, elated. “I did so awesome!” she screamed. “They even let me finish the song!”

That was a big deal because Riley was notorious for cutting people off mid-performance with a curt but polite “thank you.” I threw my arms around her, and we squealed in unison as we jumped up and down.

“So are you ready?” she asked once we composed ourselves.

I nodded. “I think so,” I said, glancing at Tim. He and Brady were having a quiet but animated conversation. “Tim said he’ll go in and watch me.”

“
Showboat?
” she asked. “Or
Cabaret?
”

I looked at Tim again. “I think you’re right,” I said to Ally with a small smile playing on my lips. “‘Don’t Tell Mama’ is a lot more fun to sing.”